Among the attached equipment are a grader, a tipper truck, and a waste truck worth R3 million that was handed over to the municipality in 2022 by then Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs, Makhotso Sotyu. 

The waste truck was part of the National Yellow Waste and Landfill Management Fleet – a national intervention aimed at improving waste collection and tackling illegal dumping in struggling municipalities.

DA councillor in Masilonyana, Brun Rossouw, expressed deep frustration over the worsening state of affairs in the municipality, which includes the towns of Theunissen and Winburg.

“The service delivery has come to a full stop. I mean we don’t have a grader, we don’t have a tipper truck, we don’t have a refuse truck, we don’t have a cherry picker, so can you realise what is going on, everything has come to a standstill,” Rossouw lamented.

She further highlighted the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Winburg, where residents have been without water for over 10 days. According to Rossouw, the municipality has failed to respond, forcing her to use her private borehole to supply water daily from early morning until late at night, even providing for schools, prisons, and old age homes.

The municipality’s infrastructure issues extend beyond water shortages. For the past two years, sewage leaks have plagued the area due to a dysfunctional treatment plant. 

Rossouw noted that although a contractor had been appointed to address the spillage, the intervention has also come to a standstill, and raw sewage continues to flow into the Rietfontein Dam where residents should be getting their water from.

Masilonyana Municipality has been the subject of national scrutiny, with Members of Parliament accusing some officials of looting and mismanagement. One MP referred to the officials as being “skilled to loot”.

Opposition parties also raised alarm, describing Masilonyana as a “symbol of dysfunction”. Over the past decade, the municipality has received nine consecutive disclaimer audit opinions due to its failure to submit credible financial statements.

In a recent meeting with MPs, Masilonyana’s audit manager, Gregory Coetzee, revealed the depth of the municipality’s financial mismanagement.

The National Treasury keeps telling the municipality that “your budget is not funded”. One of the things we’ve seen, for example, is that on the indigents’ consumer costs, National Treasury crafted the basket to be R9,000 – R10,000 for indigent consumers. 

However, the municipality is financing R23,000, so already it’s (more than) double what National Treasury is suggesting.

(For) water and sewerage infrastructure, the budget was R100 in the 2022/23 financial year. In 2023/24, we did not see it, but we do notice that because of the conditional grant, at least they’re spending on it, so the budget itself is wrong.”

Public anger continues to mount amid growing concerns that the municipality is beyond repair. There have been renewed calls for its dissolution or merger with the nearby Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi cg